Privacy under Windows platform.
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Howard_Roark
New Member
Full encryption seems to me like putting a small band aid on a bleeding wound. Not a bad idea but I think the first thing to do is to protect against getting the wounds.
Along those lines, I have become obsessed with portable apps. Furthermore, there seems to be some apps more portable than others and I have heard these referred to as "True Portable" or simply truPortable. These are apps that require no installer (simply extract the files to a folder), they do not write to the registry or write very little, and they are stand-alone. They create their own cache files, settings files, and temp files within its own folder and deletes them upon exit if the user so chooses. There should be vastly greater demand for such programming.
I use a portable browser called SRWare Iron v11.0.700.2 which is based on Chromium but far more secure in my experience. I am essentially done with Firefox. The new 4.0 version is a behemoth that eats memory. I use TrueCrypt Portable. I use CCleaner Portable as well. I've found several useful portable apps including replacements for iTunes (WinSCP Portable), WinRAR (PeaZIP Portable), Adobe Reader (PDF-XChange Viewer Portable), and Photoshop (GIMP Portable). I understand that there are many more apps that can be rigged by the user to become portable but doing so can be illegal in some cases and also requires some level of expertise and patience. Hopefully the combined concept of open source+stealth+true portability becomes widespread and more common. I would like it to evolve into pure portability where the app needs no installer, leaves no trace of its use on a computer, and self-encrypts whatever small data files it must create but keeps those encrypted files within its own folder.
I came here looking to download the latest version of Eraser Portable but I do not see it. Surely it still exists. This is a terrific idea for a thread, it can develop into a tremendous resource for great information, and I hope more people contribute their tips and tricks here.
oh and Joel.. THANK YOU FOR ERASER!!
Along those lines, I have become obsessed with portable apps. Furthermore, there seems to be some apps more portable than others and I have heard these referred to as "True Portable" or simply truPortable. These are apps that require no installer (simply extract the files to a folder), they do not write to the registry or write very little, and they are stand-alone. They create their own cache files, settings files, and temp files within its own folder and deletes them upon exit if the user so chooses. There should be vastly greater demand for such programming.
I use a portable browser called SRWare Iron v11.0.700.2 which is based on Chromium but far more secure in my experience. I am essentially done with Firefox. The new 4.0 version is a behemoth that eats memory. I use TrueCrypt Portable. I use CCleaner Portable as well. I've found several useful portable apps including replacements for iTunes (WinSCP Portable), WinRAR (PeaZIP Portable), Adobe Reader (PDF-XChange Viewer Portable), and Photoshop (GIMP Portable). I understand that there are many more apps that can be rigged by the user to become portable but doing so can be illegal in some cases and also requires some level of expertise and patience. Hopefully the combined concept of open source+stealth+true portability becomes widespread and more common. I would like it to evolve into pure portability where the app needs no installer, leaves no trace of its use on a computer, and self-encrypts whatever small data files it must create but keeps those encrypted files within its own folder.
I came here looking to download the latest version of Eraser Portable but I do not see it. Surely it still exists. This is a terrific idea for a thread, it can develop into a tremendous resource for great information, and I hope more people contribute their tips and tricks here.
oh and Joel.. THANK YOU FOR ERASER!!
Sadly, not yet, though it's on the list. For reasons explained in the FAQ, Eraser 6 is a complete rewrite, so (like all but the very final versions of Eraser 5) it does not have a portable version. I understand that creating one is a significant task, and programming effort is particularly scarce at the moment. The priority for version 6.2, when/if it sees the light of day, must be making the program more robust and able to co-exist better with the more recent versions of Windows.Howard_Roark said:
The portable version of Eraser 5.88 is still downloadable from Sourceforge, and, though not supported, can be used on Widows 7 and Vista.
Amen to that.Howard_Roark said:
David
The file that is hidden and tracks all past history of windows including deleted cookies and all that stuff is the index.dat
"Index.dat are files hidden on your computer that contain all of the Web sites that you have ever visited. Every URL, and every Web page is listed there. Not only that but all of the email that has been sent or received through Outlook or Outlook Express is also being logged. The file names and locations depend on what version of Internet Explorer you have. If you are running IE version 4.0 or above, the file name is "index.dat". Microsoft has not supplied an adequate explanation as to what these files are for or why they have been hidden so well."
Research the index.dat on google
I use a program called Privacy Mantra that not only clears all the last doc's any stored torrents and searches.. check boxes for browsers, even down to word/excel..
A good Housecleaning is removal of the system to make thumbnails, turning off Virtual ram, hibernation, clearing the files using some program that will get those hidden files and a final clear erase.
The Simple solution? VBOX your system. but thats not for the common user.
and thanks for your hard work at keeping confidential information.. just that..
"Index.dat are files hidden on your computer that contain all of the Web sites that you have ever visited. Every URL, and every Web page is listed there. Not only that but all of the email that has been sent or received through Outlook or Outlook Express is also being logged. The file names and locations depend on what version of Internet Explorer you have. If you are running IE version 4.0 or above, the file name is "index.dat". Microsoft has not supplied an adequate explanation as to what these files are for or why they have been hidden so well."
Research the index.dat on google
I use a program called Privacy Mantra that not only clears all the last doc's any stored torrents and searches.. check boxes for browsers, even down to word/excel..
A good Housecleaning is removal of the system to make thumbnails, turning off Virtual ram, hibernation, clearing the files using some program that will get those hidden files and a final clear erase.
The Simple solution? VBOX your system. but thats not for the common user.
and thanks for your hard work at keeping confidential information.. just that..
There is one thing that people almost always over look is "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags", it saves a list of programs run under compatibility settings, it should be considered a privacy risk.
Another thing is firefox now includes a javascript pdf viewer, this viewer stores that page you visited on the last pdf regardless of your privacy settings(in about:config, under pdfjs.database entry), it does not save a name of the file as such, but it saves a hash of the file. This should also be considered a privacy risk.
As for privacy "cleaning", registry "cleaning" software, I regard them as trash that should be avoided like the flu.
Another thing is firefox now includes a javascript pdf viewer, this viewer stores that page you visited on the last pdf regardless of your privacy settings(in about:config, under pdfjs.database entry), it does not save a name of the file as such, but it saves a hash of the file. This should also be considered a privacy risk.
As for privacy "cleaning", registry "cleaning" software, I regard them as trash that should be avoided like the flu.
ronnraymore
New Member
I don't see any recent 2013 014 posts? Is this a dead topic or does no one care anymore?
ronnraymore
New Member
I am running Win8 and Eraser does not recognize my Admin setting. Is there a fix in the works? Win8 appears to be a different specie than XP..for which the present ver. of Eraser seems to be written. Am I mistaken? Inform me.
ronnraymore
New Member
I believe CCleaner does not erase, but only deletes bytes, which we all know are easily recovered. I don't use it to safeguard data only to remove trash that my Win8 (rehash of 95 as far as I can tell from performance) chokes on and slows to glacial speed in execution. Two years since Eraser was released and not for Win7 or 8! Isn't it about time for an update? Ver.6 is good enough to be a MS product...that's how bad it is. ( Joel or someone needs to take ownership of this project and write some good code that actually works. I went back to Ver.5 since I actually can accomplish overwrite destruction of bytes, as far as Recuva software can recover. What a frustration to have such a good idea, but doesn't actually do what it promises...Kinda like Microsoft programmers and the Win line of bad code. Xerox coders could do better. Come on guys...make a product you can be proud of!
HaleIvan
New Member
nothing can fully prevent data compromise in case we keep it on paper or on any other storage media.
so encryption would be adviceable when you want to store data as a hard or softcopy.
it will provide an extra challenge to those who want to intercept some of your information
so encryption would be adviceable when you want to store data as a hard or softcopy.
it will provide an extra challenge to those who want to intercept some of your information
gomesruiusa
Member
ok Thanks